Author Interview: Vanessa Foran

Welcome to the first of a new series of posts on The Penny Drops: my Author Interviews! 
Each month I'll be interviewing an author I've bumped into over my years as a writer. Some of these authors you may recognise, others will be brand new. Some I've read, others I haven't. I'll interview writers of fiction, memoir, non-fiction and children's books (of course!). But despite their varying genres or stages as a writer, what they all have in common is their Christian faith. And this is strategic from my part, because what I really wanted to learn about was how their faith influences their writing, and what lessons are learned as they work on their very different projects.
To begin this series, I got to chat with Vanessa Foran. Vanessa is a psychologist living in Melbourne, Australia who loves thinking about the relationship between faith and mental health. Her first book - a creative memoir - rose out of her experiences traveling around Australia with her young family.

Penny: ​How would you sum up your author brand and what do your books offer readers?
Vanessa: I’m a Christian who knows I don’t have it all together. I’m trying to apply the Bible to my life but fall short. My experience of failure usually leads me back to God, freshly aware of my need of him. Readers will find a bit of themselves in my own books. They will also learn about the Bible in ways that are engaging and new. 
 
Penny: Does your Christian faith impact how you write, and if so, in what ways?
Vanessa: My faith is the reason I write. Initially I shared my reflections on Bible verses in my personal narratives in order to “be real” about who I was. As I worked to improve my writing and bring more structure to my work, I realised I could link Bible verses to  challenges I faced. In Travels of a Wimpy Mum, the Book of James provides a scaffolding on which to hang a personal narrative inspired by our family’s travels around Australia. I’m working on a European travel memoir focusing on 1 Corinthians, and an historical novel about an English woman from the fourteenth century: Alice Dexter, who reads the bible for herself when it is translated into everyday English by John Wycliffe and his associates. I hope readers will encounter the Bible in fresh and challenging ways in the context of these personal narratives about lay people grappling with the Bible.  ​

'I hope readers will encounter the Bible in fresh and challenging ways in the context of these personal narratives about lay people grappling with the Bible.'
- Vanessa Foran

Penny: Tell us about your most recent book and what you love most about it? 
Vanessa: My most recent book is Travels of a Wimpy Mum, a creative memoir inspired by our family’s travels around the western half of Australia, with reflections on the Book of James. The thing I love most is the characters’ sense of deepening spiritual awareness. Initially when  reflecting on the verse "Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds"  (James 1:2), trials and challenges in marriage and family life are seen as a blessing because they are an opportunity to learn to do things differently and better. This gives way to a deeper understanding  that, even more importantly, trials remind us of our need for God and bring us into a closer relationship with him. 
 
Penny: Were there any lessons you personally learned through the writing of this particular  book? How do you think that influenced how the book ended up?
Vanessa: During the writing of Travels of a Wimpy Mum I had many disappointments and received negative feedback from readers who didn’t really “get” what I was trying to do. I was tempted to give up. The incident where I felt God showed me “I am nothing” in Travels of a Wimpy Mum is inspired by a God-encounter I had when I was feeling crushed by negative writing experiences. Hearing from God that “I am nothing” was very liberating. Of course as a Christian I am also “everything”, in the sense that we are the people loved by God and redeemed through his Son, but at that point I needed to hear “I am nothing” meaning I am dead to my “self” and alive in Jesus (Gal 2:20). There was therefore no “self” to be offended by negative feedback or criticism. Knowing this, I was able to learn from one critic who taught me to write better, and the whole experience has made me more resilient about a range of negative experiences, and more grateful to those who do connect with the book. ​

'The whole experience has made me more resilient about a range of negative experiences.'
- Vanessa Foran

Penny: Who is an author you love to read and why?
Vanessa: Adrian Plass is a wonderful author who inspired me and even helped me experiment with humour. I am encouraged and entertained by his Adrian of the Sacred Diary series, an earnest Christian, who makes progress, occasionally gloats, stumbles, falls hard and then starts the process again. The most recent book in the Sacred Diary series: Adrian and the Church Weekend, is hilarious, but also a beautiful reflection on the importance of Christian community.  I also love reading Plass’s more serious works, such as the Shadow Doctor, and the Shadow Doctor: The Past Awaits, which are beautifully written, and deal with difficult issues like temptation and grief. 

Penny: You can grab a copy of Travels of a Wimpy Mum from The Wandering Bookseller or Amazon. 
The back cover blurb:
​"While Jane juggles the mental load required to wrangle her family away on a trip around rural Australia, she dreams of fourteen weeks where every day is Saturday. Yet she is also terrified and to her frustration, the road proves no escape from the grind. Parenting challenges are compounded, camp toilets need digging, and she must pack the car again and again like a reluctant Tetris master.
Seeking courage, Jane is drawn to the Book of James during her quiet times until an unexpected encounter in outback Coober Pedy changes her understanding completely. Raw, luminous, and at times hilarious, Travels of a Wimpy Mum is a piercingly relatable memoir, ​essential reading for anyone muddling out their faith in the relentlessness of family life."